I saw this recipe over at Baking Bites, and I thought – fabulous. Let’s do this.

So, I did it. Now I wish I could say, who needs Girl Scouts when you’ve got this recipe? But you still need them. These are very good, but not perfect. The shortbread layer was a a little too thick for my liking, so it tasted more like a shortbread cookie with a coconut topping. Still good though!

Cookie base:

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 large egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350. Line a 9×13-inch baking pan with aluminum foil.

In a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter, until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla extract. Gradually beat in flour and salt until mixture is crumbly, like wet sand. Pour crumbly dough into prepapred pan and press into an even layer. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until base is set and edges are lightly browned.

Unwrap the caramels and place in a large microwave-safe bowl with milk and salt. Cook on high for 3-4 minutes, stopping to stir a few times to help the caramel melt. When smooth, fold in toasted coconut with a spatula.

Put dollops of the topping all over the shortbread base. Using the spatula, spread topping into an even layer.

Let topping set until cooled. When cooled, flip the bars over upside down and place them back in the pan, coconut side down.

Melt chocolate in a small bowl. Heat on high in the microwave in 45 second intervals, stirring thoroughly to prevent scorching. Pour the chocolate over the top (which is now the shortbread) – but save a little for drizzling over the bars.

Once the chocolate has cooled, flip the bars over and cut them into squares.

For Valentine’s Day, I wanted to make something sweet and something red. I saw the recipe for these red velvet whoopie pies (made with a cake mix!) and I was sold. But the filling. Oh, the filling. It was to-die-for. I will be using it again as a frosting for cakes. SO GOOD!

You need:

1 box of red velvet cake mix

3 eggs

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup oil

2 sticks butter (softened)

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 jars marshmallow fluff

mini chocolate chips or sprinkles for rolling

Preheat your oven to 400. Combine the combine cake mix, eggs, water and oil and mix well. Drop equal scoops of dough onto your parchment lined cookie sheet. I used the PC medium scoop, which is about two tablespoons.

Bake for about 7 minutes.

While your pies are baking and cooling, combine the butter, marshmallow fluff, and powdered sugar and beat well – until light and fluffy. You could add a dash of vanilla extract, but you don’t need it – it’s delicious with just those three ingredients! Spoon your filling into a ziploc bag and pipe onto one side of your pie.

Roll the whoopie pies into either mini chocolate chips or sprinkles – and you’re done!

Amanda is my first friend from Minnesota. I’ve learned a lot about Minnesota from her, and I’ve learned perhaps the most about Minnesota cuisine. There’s “hotdish” (what a redneck might call a casserole), “glorified rice” (us rednecks wouldn’t have a name for rice that you eat as a dessert), and best of all “Snickers Salad.” Amanda gave me the cookbook from her grandmother’s church, and it had at least three recipes for this delicacy. God bless the Midwest. I would have never thought anything that included candy bars as an ingredient could be considered a salad, but in the Midwest, it can. In fact, as far as I can tell, there’s really only two kinds of salads in Minnesota. Those made with candy bars and those made with Jell-o.

I’d say the joke is on those of us eating salads made of lettuce.

I decided to give one of these Snickers Salads a try, but since Matt and I are not big fans of peanuts, I replaced the Snickers with Milky Way bars. Now you can have a taste of Minnesota for yourself!